My congratulations and heartfelt appreciation goes out to all my runners tonight.
The boys and girls both did everything we have historically needed to do to win back-to-back conference championships tonight. It took hard, gutsy races to do it. It was hard, and we did it.
Just one problem--tonight was the inaugural conference championship for our three new member schools: Thomas Nelson, North Bullitt, and perenially state-ranked AA powerhouse Bullitt East, who swept in here and nabbed both the boys and girls championship trophies and there was very little the other member schools could do about it but grumble. (I see AAA classification for 1,500-student Bullitt East in the very near future, and they'll be lucky to not end up in our spot in St. X-dominated region 3. We'll see.)
Oh, we tried to stop them. Our girls mounted an especially valiant effort, led by team-leader and eventual third-place-finisher Kayla M.'s fearless attempt to hang with Bullitt Central's state-bound number one, who's typically like a minute faster than her and she knows it. But ultimately it was their pack outpacing our pack to lead them to a 39-30 win over us. We were one strong new team away from another claim of our 11-team conference's championship. Good try, girls. It was a REALLY. GOOD. TRY. and we should be prouder of this runner-up trophy than last season's champion trophy. Really.
Guys had it even tougher. Bullitt East just handed it to us, all of us. Nobody was close. But we were the best of the rest, and it didn't come down to a nailbiter like last year, when it took a 6th runner finish to break a tie over Bardstown. No, like the girls, it was a better result, and this year from a harder-working NC team. Nicely done, gentlemen.
What will it take to get out of our region and on to the state championships this season? Basically, it will take everything. All it will take is all that we've got. But with both the boys' and girls' team averages both consistently dropping over the last three races, we've never been better poised to give it.
The boys and girls both did everything we have historically needed to do to win back-to-back conference championships tonight. It took hard, gutsy races to do it. It was hard, and we did it.
Just one problem--tonight was the inaugural conference championship for our three new member schools: Thomas Nelson, North Bullitt, and perenially state-ranked AA powerhouse Bullitt East, who swept in here and nabbed both the boys and girls championship trophies and there was very little the other member schools could do about it but grumble. (I see AAA classification for 1,500-student Bullitt East in the very near future, and they'll be lucky to not end up in our spot in St. X-dominated region 3. We'll see.)
Oh, we tried to stop them. Our girls mounted an especially valiant effort, led by team-leader and eventual third-place-finisher Kayla M.'s fearless attempt to hang with Bullitt Central's state-bound number one, who's typically like a minute faster than her and she knows it. But ultimately it was their pack outpacing our pack to lead them to a 39-30 win over us. We were one strong new team away from another claim of our 11-team conference's championship. Good try, girls. It was a REALLY. GOOD. TRY. and we should be prouder of this runner-up trophy than last season's champion trophy. Really.
Guys had it even tougher. Bullitt East just handed it to us, all of us. Nobody was close. But we were the best of the rest, and it didn't come down to a nailbiter like last year, when it took a 6th runner finish to break a tie over Bardstown. No, like the girls, it was a better result, and this year from a harder-working NC team. Nicely done, gentlemen.
What will it take to get out of our region and on to the state championships this season? Basically, it will take everything. All it will take is all that we've got. But with both the boys' and girls' team averages both consistently dropping over the last three races, we've never been better poised to give it.